A ship is no longer a she

The words will send a chill down the spine of any sailor. "Ultimately they are commodities," said the man from Lloyd's List, at a stroke bringing to an end hundreds of years of seafaring tradition. Henceforth ships will no longer be referred to as "she" in the shipping industry's own newspaper but will be known simply as "it", Lloyd's List announced today.

Founded in 1734 and claiming to be the world's oldest daily, the paper knows something about tradition. It is therefore well aware that its decision is not going to go down well with anyone with the sea in their veins.

Its editor, Julian Bray, anticipates "a full mail bag" from many of his 10,000 readers around the world. But he is unbending. "We see it as a reflection modern business of shipping."

The move is, however, already being regarded as a betrayal of the long-standing naval tradition of ascribing female names and characteristics to vessels of any size.

The general editor of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, Pieter van der Merwe, said: "Culture is a question of continuing tradition and one should preserve those inexplicable quirks.

"It's not just a sentimental thing, you lose a level of understanding unless you understand the language of the time you're talking about."

It is understood there was some debate at Lloyd's List about the style change, but ultimately it was regarded as a "technical" issue.

This will be of little comfort to anyone with an affection for all things maritime. There is no definitive explanation of how the habit of treating ships as feminine began.

Some argue it stems from when ships were dedicated to a goddess whose figure was carved on the bow. Others suggest it boils down to the fact ships, like women, can be difficult to handle and the people doing the handling were men. The US Naval Historical Centre website says it is customary to classify things as feminine "which are dear to us".